Head coach Amol Muzumdar backed Harmanpreet Kaur over the Indian skipper’s poor run of form across formats. Harmanpreet had a horrendous run with the bat in the multi-format series against Australia. In the one-off Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, she scored 2 runs, after which she made 17 runs from 3 ODIs at an average of 5.66.
Harmanpreet’s fortunes did not change as she scored only 9 runs from 3 matches at an average of 4.50 and a strike-rate of 50. Muzumdar said that form slumps “happens to every cricketer”.
Australian skipper Alyssa Healy said that the sweep that has brought Harmanpreet success over the years led to her downfall against Australia.
“She got out playing the sweep shot quite a lot, which she traditionally plays quite well. It might be down to some form. She has probably had two hard series on the trot and this series has been a long one.
“[We had] no specific plans in place, but we know we need to be switched on when she walks out to the crease and our bowlers did a great job at keeping her quiet,” Healy was quoted as saying.
India started the T20I series by winning the opening game at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai. However, they lost the last 2 games to concede the series 1-2. Muzumdar, however, reckoned that the Indian team played brilliantly barring the third ODI, which they lost by 190 runs.
“Irrespective of the result, we should be proud of the way we played all the games. Apart from the third ODI, all the other games have been close, so they should be proud of what they have done.”
“The biggest positive is the girls have responded nicely in all the formats, whether it was Test cricket – we played after nine years in India. Not many had played red-ball cricket till then. In white-ball cricket we really need to focus on our fielding and our fitness,” Muzumdar added.
